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Farm families are the backbone of America, providing important commodities like food, grains, and they are a significant component of our national economy. Having healthy farms and healthy farm families promotes environmental stewardship, cultural legacies, and rural community growth.

But farm families are feeling the pressure of an inconsistent and unreliable economy. Finances, legal issues, and physical and mental well-being are all at the forefront of agricultural concerns. Farmers have been forced to parcel off their land, file for bankruptcy, deny their children inherency rights, and take secondary jobs off the farm to provide health insurance and supplemental income to make ends meet.

These stressors can lead to mental and emotional distress, substance abuse, anxiety, depression, and even suicide.

Because of the critical role of farmers in our state and across the nation, the University of Maryland Extension has prepared this selection of assets to help farm families navigate the numerous resources available online and provide timely, science-based education and information to support prosperous farms and healthy farm families.

Choose from Financial Resources, Stress Management or Legal Resources to find a variety of online information, guides, and tools developed to help in each of these areas. As more tools are developed, these pages will be updated to reflect current information and serve as a support for highlighting future workshops and programming.

We embody the University's land-grant mission with a commitment to eliminate hunger, preserve our natural resources, improve quality of life, and empower the next generation through world-class education.